SUSTAINTECH
LOCATION
INDIA
SECTOR
ENERGY EFFICIENCY SOLUTIONS
YEAR OF INVESTMENT
2009
Need
Approximately 70% of all households in India and 90% of households in the country’s poorer, rural areas continue to use unprocessed biomass fuels, such as wood and animal dung, which result in high levels of indoor toxic pollutants, a major risk factor for lung cancer, and cardiovascular and respiratory disease.
Solution
Sustaintech, a Bangalore-based business, has developed a range of products designed to promote fuel efficiency and eliminate smoke emissions. Their biomass cooking stove is a high efficiency stove specifically designed for street food vendors operating on pushcarts or railway platforms, roadside shops, and small restaurants. It saves 40% of fuel costs through high combustion and heat transfer efficiency; it is smokeless, with an attached chimney that vents fumes away from the breathing zone. Thus, it provides a safer, cooler and healthier working environment and, importantly, prevents burns while offering a fume-free eating environment to customers.
Impact
Sustaintech has sold 5,000 pyro-stoves, served 3,000 street vendors, and saved 80,000 tonnes of biomass. Sustaintech has positively impacted the incomes of 8,760 people, with cumulative local wealth creation of over $1.1M USD. Sustaintech is currently seeking scale-up investors to help its technology intervention consolidate and grow beyond southern India, where it is currently focused.
